A Potter Secret

Searching the Room of Requirement

The cup tumbles into the water, sizzling as it makes contact, sending a wraith of water spewing forth, tortured and writhing. It hangs, suspended tremulously in the air, horrifying then explodes, raining over Ron and Hermione. They stand, utterly still, as the water runs off their bodies and pools at their feet. For a moment, they stay like this, unmoving, as if amazed to have survived, then their eyes shift, find each other. They do not blink, the moment fraught. Then Hermione, almost imperceptibly, nods. Finally, they move, closing the space between them, and kiss.

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Sizzling plumes strafe the night sky, raining down on the knights arrayed along the bridge and onto the castle itself.

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The plumes ricochet madly, shattering the tracery as the knights struggle to defend the castle. McGonagall looks up, more plumes light up the sky, begin to plummet. "Fall inside! Everybody! Fall inside!" McGonagall instructs.

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Windows shatter, pierced by plumes, which materialize into death eaters. Instantly, students and staff engage the dark wizards, standing shoulder to shoulder as they defend the school against the onslaught. Fred and George fall in on either side of Arthur, wands blazing, while Lupin, Tonks and Shacklebolt battle only yards away, the fighting swift and lethal.

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Neville's eyes rake the fiery nightscape before him, then shift to the more immediate vicinity. He goes still. Scabior. The Snatchers. Are rising. Moving forward. Toward him. "Not good," Neville mutters.

Neville starts to back up slowly, then turns heel and pelts back up the bridge. Plumes rain down from the sky. Enemy spells skitter at Neville's feet. He looks back, sees Scabior and the others closing like a herd of wildebeests. "Ready!?" Ginny calls.

"Are you bloody joking?!" Neville shouts back. She lifts her wand, ready to detonate the spells, when Seamus pops up beside her, a rather maniacal gleam in his eye. "Oh God-"

Ka-blaaaaam! Neville sets off the charges. Instantly, one bridge section after another explodes, rolling up like a carpet. Snatchers fall from sight, plummeting into the darkness. Neville looks over his shoulder, sees Scabior closing on him, then looks back towards Ginny, who stands frozen, wand raised, never fired, looking at Seamus, his face blooming with fanatical ecstasy as he watches the charges detonate. As Seamus howls with pleasure, Neville, wheezing painfully at this point, glances back and sees that Scabior has closed the distance, is coming fast when, ka-blam!, Scabior is catapulted into the air. Neville looks momentarily relieved, then realizes, to his evident dismay, that the bridge is falling away with increasing speed. Alarmed, Ginny looks to Seamus. "He's good-" Seamus assures. The remainders begin to discharge, tripping off like firecrackers, one section after another vanishing. "He's good." Including the section under Neville's feet. "And he is gone."

Ginny gasps, hands to her face. Seamus frowns. The moment hangs. Seemingly forever. Then charred fingernails appear over the final remaining section of the bridge, followed by Neville himself, teeth blackened, a patch of hair lost, scalp smoldering. "Well done, Seamus!" Neville mutters, sarcastically.

"Told yeh I'd bring 'er down," Seamus grins.

As Neville glowers at him, Ginny reaches out, hoists him onto what's left of the bridge. Neville shakes some ashes from his head and then grins unexpectedly. "What?" Ginny asks.

"That was kind of exciting," Neville says.

Seamus grins and winks knowingly. Ginny shakes her head. "Mad. The both of you," Ginny says. Just then, a thundering rumble almost sends Neville tumbling off the bridge again. As Ginny steadies him, they all peer into the distance, giants.